The final scoop on Toyota corolla/matrix/vibe MT's

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Originally Posted By: HangFire

Since Toyota makes over a quarter million Corolla/Matrix's for the US market a year*, the vast majority automatic, I see it a different way.

Normal attrition (car accidents, floods, fires, storm damage, other failures) places sufficient automatics into the used market every year, so they are cheap. Performance enthusiasts like to upgrade to the rare manual, keeping the price high.

*That's a lot. For any model in the US market, 100,000 a year is success and 150,000 is a great success.



The early 2000 Honda Civics have the exact opposite scenario of the Vibe/Corolla.The Civic automatic transmissions are more expensive used/salvage than the manual because they are not reliable.

There have been many discussions at genvibe and toyotanation about early transmission(C59) bearing failures.
 
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We have a 2006 Vibe with a 5 speed manual tranny, 145,000 trouble free miles. I get 38 mpg taking it easy, 1.8 liter engine.
 
The 2003-2008 throw-out bearing issue for the Corolla/Matrix/Vibe 1.8L is very real and I have friends and family that have had it occur.

The 2009-2013 share the same throw-out bearing issue for the Corolla/Matrix/Vibe 1.8L that the previous generation did. Go to Toyota Nation and do a search you will get many hits.

I knew the problem had not been fixed from Gen9 to Gen10 and so I did not even consider the manual (plus the throttle by wire programming took 100% of the fun out of shifting, demoting it to the functional feel of a robot.) The autos outsell the manual at least 90/100. The old school 4speed auto is bulletproof in the standard 1.8L fwd configuration, it will also return excellent fuel economy.

You will notice that the affected 5speed manual transmission found on the Gen9 and Gen10 is no longer available and has been upgraded to a 6 speed for the Gen11 2013+ models. Conversely, the tried and true bulletproof 4speed auto is STILL available along side the newest CVT spanning more than 3 generations of the cars manufacture and reliability.
 
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